I have been home for almost a week now and it has been so nice! It’s amazing the difference a good night sleep in your own bed can do.

The big question now though is what is next for me?

Well I had my follow up appointment today to get blood work done, check in, and get my next phase of treatment scheduled. My blood work is looking good and I am feeling so much better since leaving the hospital. My pancreatitis is resolving well too.

I’m eating a fairly normal diet again but I have been limiting the amount of fats that I eat to avoid angering my pancreas by going too fast. I haven’t had any issues so far and have been slowly re-introducing food each day. If anyone has any good high calorie low fat snack recommendations I’ll gladly try them! I need to put on some weight. It is hard to get my calories in when I am avoiding things like cheese, yogurt, anything breaded, etc.

The next phase of my treatment will start on Monday. I’ll be starting the central nervous system (CNS) phase next. This phase is done to prevent any cancer cells that may still be hanging around from getting into the CNS.

Monday will be a long day. In the morning I will be getting my blood work done, then I will be getting some IV chemotherapy. After that I’ll go over to the clinic to get my first of four lumbar punctures (done within a two week span of time) with chemo injected into the spinal fluid.

In the afternoon I’ll have my first radiation treatment of my brain. I’ll be getting eight days total of radiation over the next two weeks. In addition to this I’ll be taking an oral chemotherapy at home daily for 14 days and high doses of a steroid for five days starting Monday. It sounds like a lot but I’m a tough cookie.

I am looking forward to getting these next two weeks over with and being one step closer to putting this in the past.

An update on Lukey!

I have been so focused on my own health and recovery that I haven’t updated on Luke’s progress. He has been doing really well the last couple of weeks. He found out that his bone marrow is producing 100% donor cells which means that the stem cell transplant was successful. He has been able to stop some of his medications and today he got his PICC line out. His only major complaints are his hip and fatigue.

It is such a strange feeling being the needy one in the relationship (not that Luke was needy). I lost a lot of muscle so my arms and legs are weaker. Luke has been great at being a caregiver, and opening jars for me, despite not being 100% himself. We share the cooking responsibilities and spend a majority of our time resting.

I am so thankful to have such a wonderful man in my life. He treats me like a queen and never ceases to shower me in love. After being in a hospital room with minimal human contact for a month and a half, it is so nice to snuggle with my husband, hug my best friend, and see my man’s smiling face every day. Not to mention the kitty snuggles are incredibly healing for the soul.

That is all I have for now, but I’ll update next week after some of my treatments.

Love, LB